guppy pH?

[Ali Day]

Hi,
I have one surviving guppy left in my tank (the others died over the years).
My pH used to be set around 7.2, but I brought it down to 6.5 a year or so
back for the discus. I am worried about him being on his own and having an
identity crisis, as I think he now believes he is a Rummy Nosed Tetra, as
that is who he schoals with.

I asked my LFS (who know my tank) about getting companions for him, and they
said that he has become acclimatised to the pH over the years, as I brought
it down, and if I bought new ones they wouldn't survive too long, and it
would be best to leave him on his own. Unfortunately I have a girlfriend who
thinks this guppy should have friends.

I've had a look round the web and cannot find a definitive answer on
recommended conditions.
But what I would like to know, is does anyone have guppies in a discus tank,
and how do they fare?

Cheers

A

[Flash Wilson]

On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 13:56:52 +0200, Ali Day > wrote:
>I have one surviving guppy left in my tank (the others died over the years).
>My pH used to be set around 7.2, but I brought it down to 6.5 a year or so
>back for the discus. I am worried about him being on his own and having an
>identity crisis, as I think he now believes he is a Rummy Nosed Tetra, as
>that is who he schoals with.
>
>I asked my LFS (who know my tank) about getting companions for him, and they
>said that he has become acclimatised to the pH over the years, as I brought
>it down, and if I bought new ones they wouldn't survive too long, and it
>would be best to leave him on his own. Unfortunately I have a girlfriend who
>thinks this guppy should have friends.

I believe guppies prefer harder more alkaline water. If you want
to add more, you could slowly increase the pH (what is your tap
water like, would ordinary water changes achieve this or do you
need to play around with the chemistry?) but if you have tetras
in there of course you don't want to do that as they need lower
pH than guppies!

--
Flash Wilson
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"there's no call for prostitution in aber when students are free"
- an anonymous Aber sysadmin

[Jason Dale]

On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 13:56:52 +0200, "Ali Day"
> wrote:

I have had guppies in a tank with a pH of 6.5 and soft water and they
seemed okay for about 2 months it was at this level. However some
platies I bought didn't survive at this pH and soon after I added
crushed coral to the tank to increase the pH and hardness, so don't
know if they'd have been happy in the long term.

As the other poster said if you have tetras they prefer a lower pH and
so altering the water chemistry probably isn't a good idea. Also if
you have plants they generally prefer water with a pH below 7 as it
has more CO2 in it.

[The Outcaste]

On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 13:56:52 +0200, "Ali Day"
> bubbled forth the following:

>Hi,
>I have one surviving guppy left in my tank (the others died over the years).
>My pH used to be set around 7.2, but I brought it down to 6.5 a year or so
>back for the discus. I am worried about him being on his own and having an
>identity crisis, as I think he now believes he is a Rummy Nosed Tetra, as
>that is who he schoals with.
>
>I asked my LFS (who know my tank) about getting companions for him, and they
>said that he has become acclimatised to the pH over the years, as I brought
>it down, and if I bought new ones they wouldn't survive too long, and it
>would be best to leave him on his own. Unfortunately I have a girlfriend who
>thinks this guppy should have friends.
>
>I've had a look round the web and cannot find a definitive answer on
>recommended conditions.
>But what I would like to know, is does anyone have guppies in a discus tank,
>and how do they fare?
>
>Cheers
>
>A
>

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/guppy.htm says guppies like
water that is "Medium hard to very hard, and alkaline - pH 7.0-8.5"

That being said, my water is very soft (2 dKH, 6 dGH), and ph of 6.8.
My 3 guppies, 1 M 2 F, have become 80, so I would say they are doing
just fine. Half of these survived a severe ph crash (below 5 for 2-3
days, < 6 for 2 more days as I brought the ph back up) with no ill
affect

If the ph at the LFS is less than 7.0, you should be able to acclimate
them to your ph by slowly mixing in your water over 2-3 hours as they
float in the bag. Anymore than .5 would probably best be done in a
Q-tank over several days. If you don't have a Q-tank, this might be a
good excuse to get one:-)

As always, ymmv. Some strains of guppies seem indestructible, others
go belly up at the slightest change.

HTH

Jerry

[NetMax]

"Ali Day" > wrote in message
...
> Hi,
> I have one surviving guppy left in my tank (the others died over the
years).
> My pH used to be set around 7.2, but I brought it down to 6.5 a year or
so
> back for the discus. I am worried about him being on his own and having
an
> identity crisis, as I think he now believes he is a Rummy Nosed Tetra,
as
> that is who he schoals with.
>
> I asked my LFS (who know my tank) about getting companions for him, and
they
> said that he has become acclimatised to the pH over the years, as I
brought
> it down, and if I bought new ones they wouldn't survive too long, and
it
> would be best to leave him on his own. Unfortunately I have a
girlfriend who
> thinks this guppy should have friends.
>
> I've had a look round the web and cannot find a definitive answer on
> recommended conditions.
> But what I would like to know, is does anyone have guppies in a discus
tank,
> and how do they fare?
>
> Cheers
>
> A


My first concern would be the acclimation. If your LFS is at 7.2, then
let you Discus tank drift up to 6.8 and the transition will go much
better. After a month, you can return to 6.5, though I think 6.8pH would
be fine for the Discus. My other concern would be quarantining the
Guppies. As Guppies tend to be fragile, you will need a few extra, and
ideally a hospital tank for the quarantine. You can complete the pH
transition in the hospital tank.

You might find that the mortality of the Guppies is poor, but their fry
will be much better acclimated to your water. You just need to keep the
fry alive (breeding trap) for several days to improve their chances of
survival.
--
www.NetMax.tk